One of North America’s most majestic and challenging contemporary rail lines has now come to Train Simulator with the Alaska Railroad – Seward to Anchorage route!

Created through the Dovetail Games Partner Programme by Train & Drivers, the Train Simulator Alaska Railroad – Seward to Anchorage route includes the Alaska Railroad’s line from Anchorage via Portage to Seward (114 route miles) as well as the important ARR line from Portage to Whittier, Alaska (12 route miles). And as an engineer on this extraordinary modern route, you’ll take the throttle of the Alaska Railroad’s powerful Electro-Motive SD70MACs and versatile GP38-2s, both of which are included with the route.

Another fascinating aspect of operations on the ARR is the railroad’s reliance on Direct Traffic Control (“DTC”) given that a majority of the route is not equipped with lineside signals (the areas around Anchorage and Whittier Tunnel being the exceptions). ARR’s use of Direct Traffic Control involves dispatchers providing, via radio transmission, permission for trains to operate within assigned DTC blocks. The Alaska Railroad – Seward to Anchorage route authentically re-creates ARR’s block system and DTC operations as well as the CTC-governed signaling around Anchorage and Whittier. Some sections of the ARR are authorized for 49-mph freight-train speeds, although much of the railroad, due to its steep gradients (up to 3 percent) and tight curves, are more typically restricted to speeds in the range of 25-35 mph.

Along with the ARR Electro-Motive SD70MAC and EMD GP38-2, the Alaska Railroad – Seward to Anchorage route provides a variety of authentic freight equipment, including flatbed container car, covered hoppers, center-beam flatcar, 4-chute coal hopper, timber flat, stack car, piggyback flat, boxcar, tank car, and ARR extended-vision cupola caboose. Together with masterful route development and assets creation by Jonathan Lewis and Michael Stephan, this new Train Simulator route also features a selection of nine career scenarios authored by Andreas Czudai and Jim Friedland – and there’s no doubt this landmark route, with its truly extraordinary operating possibilities, will be an absolute favorite of Steam Workshop scenario creators.